On Measuring One-Way Path Metrics from a Web Server

Abstract

Measuring one-way path metrics can facilitate adaptive online services (e.g., Video streaming and CDN) tuning to improve quality of experience (QoE) of their clients. However, existing server-side measurement systems suffer from (i) measuring only few one-way path metrics, (ii) limited client-side support, and (iii) heavy overheads. In this paper, we propose and implement OWPScope, a novel system that can be deployed to any web server to measure four important one-way path metrics -- packet loss, packet reordering, jitter, and capacity -- without requiring software or plug in installation at their web clients. Moreover, OWPScope performs representative measurement by correlating only information gleaned from standard features in HTML5 (e.g., Navigation timing, resource timing), HTTP, and TCP. Our extensive evaluations in both a test bed and the Internet show that OWPScope can effectively measure one-way path metrics with low overhead.